AVillage...,Inc.

AVillage...Inc.

7/17/2018

Poor soil is the biggest obstacle to urban food production Much of the once fertile Hudson River Valley is now polluted and paved over. How can people who live in the most contaminated parts of Albany access healthy soil? The answer is simple: use local organic (once living) waste to produce fresh compost. Food waste, dead leaves, wood chips, and grass clippings can all be diverted from the landfill and reintegrated back into the environment as compost, a nutritional soil supplement used in gardening. Finished compost is amazing for a number of reasons: it restores nutrients and microbial processes to sterilized soils, improves moisture retention and pH, creates soil where none exists, and reduces the risk of exposure to soil-bound lead.

Albany’s Rapp Road Landfill is slated for closure. Composting is a
good alternative to the dump. In fact, it may be the sustainable solution
that helps bring vegetables to food deserts and mitigates climate change.

The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center in Albany is
kickstarting the way for the Capital Region to compost more efficiently. Radix
is a non-profit educational learning center and urban farm based in Albany’s
South End. Ten years ago the site was a derelict parking. It now has a
solar-heated bioshelter greenhouse that is managed as an indoor ecosystem with
fish and flora integrated in an aquaponic system. Microlivestock like chickens
and ducks live on the farm and eat food waste. The gardens use a rainwater
collection system and electricity is provided by photovoltaic panels. As a demonstration
site, Radix runs sustainability education programs and a farmshare. Radix works
with the community advocacy organization A Village… Inc., to increase access to
healthy, farm fresh food in the South End (classified as a food desert) by
distributing at the Health Market, the only farmer’s market in the South End.
Radix also encourages food waste diversion through the Community Composting
Initiative (CCI).

The CCI is a weekly compost collection service in which
subscribers get their food waste picked up at their curbside. The CCI also
provides a hands-on example of sustainable waste management for our education
programs. Volunteers, youth participants, and interns can touch, examine, and
engage with all aspects of the compost process, from adding food scraps to the
pile, to sifting fresh compost soil to garden beds.

Radix utilizes several techniques for composting. First,
microlivestock such as chickens and geese eat food scraps, and thus lay eggs
and defecate manure. Though they eat a significant amount of food scraps, not
all is edible; what does not get eaten by the animals is mixed into compost
piles with wood chips. When nitrogen-rich food waste is mixed with carbon-based
woodchips, aerobic microbial composting begins and the compost pile heats up.
As a result of the microbial metabolism, the internal temperature can reach 160
degrees Fahrenheit. In the winter, we harness some of the biothermal heat by
running water pipes through the compost pile, and into the greenhouse. Over
time, the pile cools and shrinks by almost 50% of volume, and earthworms take
over the next part of the process. The finished product is a beautiful
broken-down organic matter that is dark in color, with a sweet, rich earthy
scent. This resulting soil can then be added as a fertilizer to our raised-bed
gardens, replacing the nutrients that are lost with the previous year’s crop.

We believe that it is just as important to keep composting local
as food production. When food waste is transported over long distances, the
greenhouse gas emissions negate the atmospheric benefits of composting.
Furthermore, in local “microbrew” composting, there is greater care put in to
what materials get added in to the compost pile, screening out plastic trash,
which in industrial scale compost end up getting processed anyway.

We offer a number of practical solutions: some organizations and
businesses voluntarily donate their food waste to us; for those who don’t have
time, we offer the compost collection subscription; and for those who want to
compost local, but aren’t local to Albany, we offer to help match farms to food
waste producers.

This article was produced in part with funding provided by the NYS
Pollution Prevention Institute through a grant from the Environmental
Protection Fund as administered by the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation.

Any opinions, findings,
and/or interpretations of data contained herein are the responsibility of the
author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions, interpretations or
policy of Rochester Institute of Technology and its NYS Pollution Prevention
Institute or the State.

Sandra McKinley is the founder of D.I.V.A’s for Christ, also known as D.I.V.A's, an organization she created around the same time that AVillage came to be. D.I.V.A's means “Divinely, Inspired, Victoriously, Assigned sister”. The mission of D.I.V.A's for Christ is to empower, strengthen, and encourage individuals living in low-income communities as well as those coming out of jails and other institutions through a network of services and programs designed to help them succeed and survive in today's world. Although D.I.V.A’s still needs a 501c3, one of its most significant focuses is in helping people gain access to construction jobs and the rebuilding of their community and themselves.

Sandra McKinley’s connection with God has been a throughline of her life. Her faith not only continually brings her guidance and restoration, but served as an inspiration for her community work.

“D.I.V.A's was revealed. It wasn’t something that I thought up. It was something that was revealed to me through my heart, through my situations and my struggles and my life. So as I grew to know who God was, he taught me who I was.”

Sandra McKinley cares deeply about fighting the oppression that black men and women face, and wants to break through the wall that separates our communities from true success. She thinks community members need to be empowered to hold non-profits responsible for the change they commit to make, and knows that connecting marginalized people to resources is a round-the-clock job. “D.I.V.A's is here to try to help them get to an open door. We can get them to the door, and they can stand and stare at it all day but if they don't walk through it then nothing’s gonna happen.”

Sandra McKinley’s organization is run by willpower and determination. She values the importance of getting the community the information that will help them the most. She knows that the systemic issues facing black people in poor communities loom large, and that
even huge organizations can’t find resolutions for every problem. But as sure
as Sandra’s faith serves as a guidepost for her values, there’s a Bible verse
for that.

“If I was to use one sentence to describe what I do for D.I.V.A's it would be, ‘To walk someone through to the other side of where they are.' The bible tells us that we should be helping one another. Philippians 2:4 says, ‘Let each of you look not to his own interest, but also
to the interests of others.’ And hopefully as I grab hold of somebody and walk with them, they will grab two.”

Sandra McKinley is a healer, a leader, a friend, and a coach, all in one. She aims to build the faith of those who feel that they have none left. Although Sandra is still trying to build her organization’s capacity, she doesn’t let that stop her from bridging the gap between youth and the type of opportunities she missed out on herself. “God shows us where we wasted time and by investing in someone else and my hope is that they won’t waste so much.”

She is an incredibly self-reflective individual, and talks about the lessons she wishes she could tell her teenage-self. “Somebody has to water your
dream. Somebody has to encourage us. It puts joy in people’s hearts that makes
them blossom. That makes that flower come up and their backs get straighter.”

I ask Sandra what brings her the most joy. After all, so much of her life has been intertwined with helping people through the hardest moments of theirs. Her answer comes with a brief
pause, a bright smile on her face. “When I see someone who was down, get up.”

If you would like to support D.I.V.A’s, or know someone who could help the organization get a 501c3, e-mail Sandra McKinley at divasforchrist2017(at)gmail.com.

4/25/2018

I was a member of the South End Action Committee and participated in the planning process that resulted in the Capital South Segway to the Future Plan in 2017. Aside from the title, I thought it was a good, inclusive process that resulted in an impressive document with real prospects. I was also on the South End Implementation Team, which was charged with overseeing the execution of the plan. That was discouraging, to see interest wane and gradually disappear.

So it was instructive to give this Plan a full reading last weekend, from the perspective of both yesterday’s ideas today’s realities. This is my subjective report:

The Plan had the optimistic goal of completing the first phase, “Stabilize,” in about two years. There was a heavy emphasis on the built environment, for obvious reasons, but, as it turns out, the strategies proposed for accomplishing the task of turning around the blighting influence of abandoned properties didn’t work.

Eleven years on, the situation with the buildings is worse, simply because the vacant buildings are older and even more deteriorated. But it is important to acknowledge these significant success:

·Public safety has improved markedly, with all crime statistics trending downward, thanks to the Albany Police Department’s embrace of community policing, innovative gang outreach by Trinity and others, and more community participation. However, public perception has not caught up.

·The Albany Housing Authority completed all the projects the Plan suggested, absent tearing down more of Lincoln Square. Habitat did one major new project on Alexander Street and is adding more homes to its Delaware Street project.

·The Capital South Campus Center is a major outcome from the Plan, and a source of pride in the community. The reevaluation of the CSCC’s mission that is under way does not detract from this accomplishment.

·Albany County created a Land Bank that has finally gotten control of the abandoned buildings and vacant lots, so that it is now possible to do rational planning and priority setting. In addition, the city has refocused its efforts to understand vacant property ownership, so that good data can drive decision making.

·Community engagement and participation has increased substantially, thanks to the South End Neighborhood Association, AVillage…,Inc., a variety of newer community organizations, a revitalized Trinity Alliance and a helpful Albany Housing Authority.

·The South End Improvement Corp. has increased its capacity and is now able to take a pivotal role in planning as well as in implementing rehab and redevelopment projects.

Stabilize: Still the goal

The abandoned property issue turned out to be much more difficult to solve than the plan anticipates, and nearly all of the suggested solutions turned out to be either unworkable or did not receive the government investment they needed to succeed.

Thus, we find ourselves with a new set of facts and a new set of tools — not necessarily better or worse, but not 2007.

Nevertheless, the Plan makes one valuable contribution, I think — the assertion that all of the various approaches to addressing abandoned property need to be evaluated not as individual enhancements but as one coordinated campaign to reach specific goals.

The Stabilize section addresses other important issues for the South End: Access to jobs, quality of life and community capacity. While none of these are completed, the question is whether we have learned enough and moved far enough in eleven years to warrant going on to “Energize.” The next step would be to form working groups to explore goals and strategies in each of these areas.

·Access to jobs. Building wealth in the South End is a major unmet goal. The Campus Center discussion currently under way ultimately revolves around the intense difficulty of raising income levels in poor neighborhoods. Again, the Plan envisioned a multi-faceted but coordinated approach that has so far not materialized. However, the city has stepped forward with its new CAPRI initiative, so a South End group might want to plug into that while refocusing on relationships with local employers, including the Port of Albany, Albany Med, the Convention Center, the WAGE Center, etc.

·Quality of Life can expand on the successes listed above, and move on to block level organizing and planning, etc. This is also where local “clean and green” efforts hold great promise, since both the city and the land bank now support the concept. We also need to recognize that qualify of life should include more than absence of crime and a more attractive neighborhood, but also touch on recreation, arts and culture.

·Community capacity is an ongoing issue, as it depends in large part on volunteer efforts the work of a few large not-for-profits and a collection of a dozen or so small not-for-profits. The Lincoln Fund, a fund of the Community Foundation, is interested in working with these smaller not-for-profits to increase their capacity and explore areas of partnership and collaboration, while maintaining their individual character.

Not Addressed in the Plan: Then there are several areas not addressed in the Plan that have been the focus of these smaller not-for-profits. This indicates a high level of community interest that should be nurtured by a new coordinating body:

a)Health and environmental justice

b)School success and youth development

c)Recreation, Arts and culture.

Grow the South End

This third section is admittedly futuristic, and most of the ideas presented are still beyond any immediate action at any level. However, events and individual decisions often drive planning in ways that nobody anticipated. With that in mind, several of the large concepts should be kept in front of a new community committee:

·The redevelopment of Lincoln Square. While demolition of any of the remaining tower buildings depends on federal funding unlikely to appear any time soon, the prospects for developing 15 Warren Street are much brighter.

·The South Pearl corridor, and especially the so-called “Capital South Square” (the DMV building, the county-owned parking lot and the other county buildings) could all be affected by real estate decisions. South Enders may want to preserve our options for a more community-oriented approach to that area.

·The development of Giffen Memorial as a “community school.” This holds great promise for the South End both in terms of enhancing the educational experience of our young people, but also as turning the school into a community asset.

In order to have an impact on current developments that might affect those long-range concepts, this new community committee would need to establish itself as a body that can speak for all of the South End.

3/26/2018

George York has been living in the South End for twenty-two years.
George is deeply committed to serving his community and consistently shows up
for the South End community through his work at AVillage and the Children’s Café. George volunteers at The Children’s Café from open to close, five days a week.

George’s favorite part about volunteering at the Children’s Café is the familial atmosphere. One of the core
aspects of its mission is to nourish people. George enjoys that this is a place
that families can come together and eat, and have a good time while doing it.

He likes to be useful, which explains his role at the Café. George wouldn’t necessarily consider
himself a mentor, but he’s a presence that the kids at the Café can depend on. “You know, just basically like
a big brother. I try to help to the best of my abilities, you know?” Whatever
they need him for, he’s there. Whether it’s cooking, maintenance, or minding
the youth of the program, George is an active participant. He is also close
friends with the director, Tracie Killar. He describes their relationship
as “tight like brother and sister”.

When George first became an AVillage member three years ago, he
was also in a position that put him directly in touch with the community. As
former manager of the South End Healthy Market, he enjoyed having face-to-face
interactions with the people of the South End, selling produce, and creating
connections. People still come up to him and ask him if he’s going to be selling
produce during the next Healthy Market season. When George first joined
AVillage, he felt like he was receiving as much as he was giving.

“Actually, as I was helping people AVillage was helping me also.”

When asked what his favorite thing about AVillage’s mission is, he
said it’s the drive to help people to the best of the organization’s ability.
George also praises AVillage’s growth since he joined three years ago.

“It’s amazing. I believe it’s like a miracle. It takes work and
it’s just the progress, you know. It’s progress, not perfection.”

George definitely embodies his own advice. His activities include
exercise at the YMCA, taking typing classes at the Capital South Campus Center,
volunteering, and weekly bowling. Keeping this schedule allows him to keep his
mind occupied. It’s about balancing what he can while he gives back to his
community. Over twenty-two years, he’s witnessed a lot of change, both positive
and negative.

He cites the Capital City Rescue Mission’s expanded capacity as a
positive, marking his desire to simply see people getting the help they need.

However, George wants to see more places built for children in the
community, instead of buildings focused solely on business development.
Among other changes he wants to see is a shift toward less environmental
pollution in the South End, and less violence. He hasn’t touched a cigarette in
seven years, but wonders to what extent the air pollution is affecting him.

George York is greatly observant, but doesn’t simply stand by and
watch. He works toward an empowered South End every day. He is a man of his
community, a man of principles and routine. He enjoys listening to Earth, Wind,
and Fire, and playing cards. He keeps to himself, but makes it a core principle
to give back. Yes, George is a man who lets his silence do the talking. But he
knows the value of reaching out to those around him, and is part of a ripple
effect of the positive impact of individuals doing what they can to touch the
lives of community members. “Goodwill and a little heart go a long way. When
you speak heart to heart, people understand better,” he says.

I think all members of the South End community would agree that we
need more Georges in the world.

1/02/2018

by Tom McPheetersThe
article Millennials
Are Screwedshould
be a must-read for anybody concerned about our inner city
neighborhoods. If you have not read it, set aside a half hour and be
prepared to be outraged.

While
the article (in Huffington Post’s Highline section) is focused on
the plight of young adults caught in the economic tsunami of the 2009
Great Recession and its aftermath, it lays out in devastating clarity
the structural inequities that have kept residents of low income
neighborhoods and people of color out of the economic mainstream for
many, many decades.

Workforce
development is not a new topic, but in Albany there is a new interest
and some new initiatives (see our newsletter). I would like to offer
the following thoughts:

The
structural barriers facing low income workers are enormous, and any
new program that hopes to “break the cycle of poverty” better be
fully prepared to deal with the almost inevitable setbacks that come
with living paycheck to paycheck. Government anti-poverty and safety
net programs are utter failures in dealing with these low-level but
devastating catastrophes (an illness, a car accident or breakdown,
etc.) As the HuffPo article points out, the best way to deal with
these setbacks is to make sure families have a cushion, a little
extra income (just like us middle class folks). Where is that to
come from?

Address
the high cost of housing, the biggest single drain on family
finances. Housing insecurity and the cycle of homelessness is one of
the major reasons people don’t keep the jobs they have.

Start
to break the “contract worker” system. I recently talked with a
young man at a family homeless shelter. He has a job with a local
contractor doing demolition and cleanup for the Albany County Land
Bank, but he still fell behind on his rent, got evicted and ended up
at Schuyler Inn. The HuffPo article made me realized how prevalent
the contract labor system has become. Albany Housing pays
contractors to do its grounds keeping and maintenance. The local
hotels hire through contractors for their housekeeping and kitchen
jobs. Many workers these days get 30 hours a week and no benefits,
and very little job security. Not every employer can be persuaded to
change their ways, but surely public authorities and some local
businesses can be led to see their own role in keeping people in
poverty.

Remember
what has to be a primary goal — strengthen the economic life of
the neighborhood. Workforce development works best in neighborhoods
that already have things going for them, where people see hope and a
future for themselves and their children. At a certain point, the
neighborhood becomes its own network and support system and
generator of ambition. We are not really helping a lot of people
when our few successes get a better job and move out.

Don't
aim for the fences with every program. There may be a few people who
can jump from sweeping floors to a great job in some tech company.
We should applaud them and help them however we can, but they can’t
be the focus here. For most people, there are many steps in between,
and on each rung of the ladder there needs to be both a job, support
and training for the next job.

Understand
that unions have different agendas. As the HuffPo article points
out, most unions these days are in a defensive mode, and focused on
keeping their current members employed. In my opinion, we have
invested way too much effort in trying to persuade the construction
trades in the Capital Region to let people of color into their
high-wage system, only to find that the deck is stacked against new
workers. It's almost impossible to actually make a living without
substantial seniority, a reliable vehicle and (usually) a second
job. The white color unions are seen as allies to the poor, but not
portals to their good paying jobs.

Find
areas of opportunity — professions that have both entry-level
positions with minimal training and opportunities for advancement.
Develop relationships with the employers, so that the job exists at
every off ramp. We have been exploring a couple of good prospects,
and I am sure there are others.

Train
people with some construction skills to work on our many vacant
buildings. These are non-union jobs that require both traditional
skills and extensive problem-solving skills that find economic ways
of dealing with decay and inexpensive design solutions.

The
health and medical fields offer a variety of entry-level jobs that
could lead to higher paying jobs. We see some residents of the South
End take advantage of these opportunities, and now Trinity and
AVillage are hiring South End residents to serve as Resident
Outreach Workers. With encouragement and more training, these
part-time positions could lead to good paying full time jobs.

Trinity’s
Capital South Campus Center had been scouting employers who are
willing to start people at entry level and bring them along. What is
missing is a funded cadre of employment advisors, counselors and
problem solvers. Transportation, medical crises, children’s
illnesses, etc. And, as I wrote earlier, cash when it’s needed.

Shameka
Andrews celebrated a birthday yesterday, on New Year’s Day. Her
celebration is a reminder that she defied stark odds. Shameka was
born with Spina Bifida, a
birth defect that occurs when the spine and spinal cord don't form
properly. “My parents were told that I wouldn’t live past the age
of 5. And now coming in this new year I’m going to be forty years
old. So to me that in itself is exciting.”

Shameka
is a disability advocate and consultant. She provides workshops for
people with disabilities, their families, and community organizations
in the areas of health and wellness and self advocacy. Helping people
with disabilities — and their families — get the resources that
they need to live the lives that they want to lead. She
coordinates wellness activities, increases participation of people
with disabilities in their communities and runs Ms Wheelchair NY,
which is an advocacy and empowerment program for women who use
wheelchairs. “It’s all about helping women with disabilities
being better advocates in their communities and make differences and
have their voices be heard.”

Shameka’s
journey may have started with self advocacy, but she always hoped
that her actions would have a positive ripple effect for others. When
she graduated from college, she was told that students with
disabilities would not be able to access the stage and walk across it
like everyone else. “They said that we usually pass them their
diploma while they’re sitting in the audience. And I said,
‘I’m sorry, no disrespect to you, but I worked just as hard as
every student in this school. And I am not going to sit in the
audience while somebody passes me my diploma.’

Shameka
loves to take walks, and refuses to let the breakdown of
accessibility standards confine her or others. We talk about
the issue of sidewalk accessibility. When the risk of using a
wheelchair on an icy or unplowed sidewalk is too great, some opt to
drive their wheelchair in the street. Sometimes, anger is drivers’
knee-jerk reaction, and this is representative of how the issues that
people with disabilities face are often marginalized, or
misunderstood. Shameka talks about the value of seeing the full human
being, not a burden. “It’s not a disability issue. It’s a
community issue.”.

Although
she grew up in Downtown Albany, Shameka is now a citizen of the South
End. She can be seen at local events, including protests at Ezra
Prentice, AVillage Thursday meetings or Saturday morning Zumba
classes. Her presence in the community is an embodiment of her
practicing what she preaches through community development. Albany is
one of the few cities to form an advisory committee to better enforce
the American with Disabilities Act. “It
can’t be up to one committee. It has to be the the community as a
whole saying whoever I am, that I am going to do my best. Do my part
to make sure that my little section of the community is as inclusive
and supportive as I can possibly make it.”

Shameka
is also a teacher of meditation. She loves to share the strength she
has found through stretching her mind and body to the height of their
capabilities, despite the external noise. “And
that’s what this work has done for me in my own life, to really
explore and be able to explore my own capabilities of what my mind is
capable of and what my body is capable of.”

Shameka
Andrews embodies self care as a radical force. She encourages people
to love themselves as a rule, despite imposed limitations. “Most
people before they meet me or even have a conversation with me have
already decided what I am capable of. I mean from the day I was born
— that’s how most people with disabilities are presented to their
parents, with a list of things that they will never be able to do.”

Shameka
is also an author.In
2018, she is keeping the door open for bringing readings of her books
and other programs into schools, booking more speaking engagements,
coordinating more health and wellness events, and continuing to share
her story. Shameka’s children’s book, Butterfly
On Wheels,
is about a caterpillar on wheels who can’t wait for her wings. As
for more the possibility of more books? That’s a door that Shameka
has left open, and is excited to see what unfolds.

One
quote she shares before a speech is this quote from Edward Everett
Hale: “I am
only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do
something. And I won’t let what I can’t do interfere with what I
can.”

12/13/2017

Mississippi
native Clara Phillips has been in Albany for 56 years, and has stayed
a loyal resident to the South End ever since. She has been a part of
AVillage for the past 8 years ever since running into Willie White
one day after her church service who said, “I’m starting an
organization”. Ms.Clara has since been known as “AVillage’s
first member”, and her dedication to her work is accredited to
something her mother always told her -- “If you’re going to do
something, stick with it”. Her dedication is visible through the
creation of the 100 CDTA bus line and the annual Mississippi Day.

While
interviewing Ms. Clara, I asked her what her favorite memory of
Albany is, to which she laughed and said, “Well, at first, I didn’t
like Albany. It was too quiet”. Now, Ms. Clara said, she would
never leave the South End or Albany. Mississippi will always be home,
but Albany has become a good second home for her.

She
now occupies her time by working at the South End Children’s Cafe
where she helps youth with their homework and tries to answer all of
the questions about life they throw at her. “They keep you in
touch”, she said, when asked about how different is was working
with a younger generation. Since younger generations are more
involved with social media than Ms. Clara, they fill her in about
technology while she tells them stories about her past.

Ms.
Clara admitted that she’s not as updated with technology, but she
wishes the South End could get more media coverage to raise
awareness. “You can’t buy salad in the South End”, she said.
The importance of raising her, and many others’ concerns about the
need for jobs, health insurance, and vegetables needs to reach more
social media coverage so that change can happen.

When
asking about her history, Ms. Clara told her life story with a
reminiscent look and a smile that never left her face. From sharing
stories about the day she cooked for the first annual AVillage
Mississippi Day with an injured ankle to how she works at the local
South End Children’s Cafe to help students with their homework,
it’s clear why social media is important. Without social media
platforms, some stories never get shared. They may die with the
person they belong to, but Ms. Clara is working against that by
writing her first novel. Still in the making, From
The Beginning to Almost The End, will
share her well known recipes and the challenges she’s overcome. Her
hopes for the book is that “it might help someone else”.

People of the South End will be an occasional feature of AVillage VOICE. If you know someone with a story to tell, let us know. The Editor.

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About AVillage

AVillage...Inc., is a grassroots nonprofit organization helping to develop the South End of Albany, NY. Since it was found in August 2009, AVillage members have been working hard to create new programs and hopes in the South End and beyond.

Our mission is to improve the quality of life for residents of the South End and beyond, by reclaiming our neighborhoods, by encouraging, engaging, and empowering our communities.